Caught in the Crossfire

Brother Ali is a rapper who can make you smile in the blink of an eye. Honestly, you can pick any Ali track at random and within 30 seconds, you’ll be grinning from ear-to-ear like some kind of deranged Cheshire Cat and this new album, Us, is no different.

The rapper is joined by Atmosphere’s beatsmith Ant who laces his usual mix of upbeat drums and pretty melodies, this time using the live instrumentation that got it’s first airing on Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons… album and once more gives Ali the perfect landscape on which to tell his stories.

Being introduced on your own album by Chuck D is not just a statement of intent for things to come, it’s a whip crack that forces you to sit up and listen before launching into The Preacher, with it’s horns and handclaps, which is sure to be another bonafide crowd pleasing classic to rank alongside Forest Whitaker and Room With A View.

Ali’s storytelling, which encompasses other people for the first time, as opposed to just his own personal trials and tribulations, gives it another dimension and makes it a much more rounded album than The Undisputed Truth, his last full length effort. The vibe continues through tracks like Games and Fresh Air, which you can hear by clicking above, and Best @ It which features a killer opening verse from Freeway.

The final track, Us, is the sonic embodiment of the slogan that runs through the album – There’s no me and no you, it’s just us – and is the perfect showcase of a talent that has been bubbling under for too long. This is the album to push Ali through and there isn’t a man on this planet that doesn’t deserve it more.

Abjekt.